“Let your works of charity to men be accompanied with prayer and thanksgiving unto God. Render thanks unto God, that he hath put you among the givers, and not among the receivers, it being a lot more blessed thing to give than receive: that he hath put you among the givers and not the withholders: that he hath given you something to give, and a heart to distribute of your abundance to the needy, and to the furtherance of the establishing of the kingdom of Christ on earth.”
Thomas Gouge (1609-1681) illumination quote in the NIV Stewardship Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009) 172.